Obscure Team Scans Systems
To See Where Enemy May Hit

By

Ted Bridis Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated June 8, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON -- Once upon a time, the nation's military airfields, missile silos and radio towers were its Achilles' heel. In today's increasingly computerized world, the key vulnerability is likely to be an unlocked computer server, a software bug or a network password too easy to guess.

The U.S. government has an excellent sense of where its old-style vulnerabilities lie -- yet hardly any idea what today's weaknesses are. Now, a small...